Astronomy
- Fastest Moving Planet
A small planet known as CoRoT-7b which is 500 light years from Earth and is the fastest moving planet known . It is moving around its star every 20.4 hours and is confirmed as a rocky planet. CoRoT-7b is a rare breed of exoplanets with masses just a...
- Big Planet, Small Star
One of the smallest stars in the Galaxy has been found to have a planet orbiting it that is six times more massive than Jupiter. This gas giant is as far from its star as Mercury is from our Sun, but because the star is so small, it is like a scaled...
- New Exoplanet Could Be First Hospitable To Life
An artist?s rendition of Gliese 581g. Image: Copyright Lynette CookThe first Earth-like exoplanet (a planet outside our Solar System has been discovered orbiting in a star?s habitable zone, a range of distances around a planet in which an Earth-like planet...
- Hubble Takes First Image Of An Extrasolar Planet
An artist's concept of Fomalhaut b The image on the left is the first visible-light photograph of a planet orbiting another star, an extrasolar planet. It was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The planet, named Fomalhaut b, orbits the star Fomalhaut....
- Another Extrasolar Planet
The picture above is the first picture of a planet (top-left) orbiting a sun-like star. It was taken by the 270-inch diameter Gemini North Telescope, located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The star, 1RXS J160929.1-210524, is located in the Scorpius constellation,...
Astronomy
Rocky Earthlike planet discovered
Researchers on 21.4.09 confirmed the existence of a rocky Earthlike planet with a mass of 1.9 Earth masses, orbiting in the Gliese 581 system.
Another planet in the four planet system was also found to be lying in the star's habitable zone, the region where liquid water oceans could exist. The findings are the result of over four years of observations using the world's leading low-mass exoplanet hunter, the HARPS spectrograph attached to the 3.6 metre telescope at La Silla in Chile.
The new planet is orbiting far too close to its host star for it to be habitable, however, the seven Earth mass planet lies towards the far edge of the star's habitable zone, orbiting with a period of nearly 67 days. Gliese 581 d is probably too massive to be a rocky planet, it's probably an icy planet that has migrated closer to the star.
Gliese 581 is roughly one-third the mass of the Sun, and with a much lower luminosity. Therefore a planet would need to be situated much closer to this star than our own Sun in order to receive a comparable amount of energy as the Earth. The holy grail of planet hunting will be to find a true Earth twin.
- Fastest Moving Planet
A small planet known as CoRoT-7b which is 500 light years from Earth and is the fastest moving planet known . It is moving around its star every 20.4 hours and is confirmed as a rocky planet. CoRoT-7b is a rare breed of exoplanets with masses just a...
- Big Planet, Small Star
One of the smallest stars in the Galaxy has been found to have a planet orbiting it that is six times more massive than Jupiter. This gas giant is as far from its star as Mercury is from our Sun, but because the star is so small, it is like a scaled...
- New Exoplanet Could Be First Hospitable To Life
An artist?s rendition of Gliese 581g. Image: Copyright Lynette CookThe first Earth-like exoplanet (a planet outside our Solar System has been discovered orbiting in a star?s habitable zone, a range of distances around a planet in which an Earth-like planet...
- Hubble Takes First Image Of An Extrasolar Planet
An artist's concept of Fomalhaut b The image on the left is the first visible-light photograph of a planet orbiting another star, an extrasolar planet. It was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The planet, named Fomalhaut b, orbits the star Fomalhaut....
- Another Extrasolar Planet
The picture above is the first picture of a planet (top-left) orbiting a sun-like star. It was taken by the 270-inch diameter Gemini North Telescope, located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The star, 1RXS J160929.1-210524, is located in the Scorpius constellation,...